Gov. Little announces Idaho will stay in Stage 2 of COVID-19 response, no mask mandate
In his first news conference since Nov. 13, Gov. Brad Little on Thursday announced there would be no additional measures to combat the spread of the coronavirus in Idaho, nor would any new restrictions be issued by the state like a mask mandate.
Nearly a month after announcing Idaho would fall back into a modified Stage 2 in its COVID-19 reopening plan, Little defended his decisions to resist calls for increased statewide health measures, again emphasizing the need for orders to come from cities, counties or health districts as polarization on the issue worsens in the state.
Many in the Treasure Valley witnessed Tuesday how local officials are targeted and scrutinized over proposing orders. Members of the Boise-based Central District Health board prematurely ended a meeting after Boise Mayor Lauren McLean and Boise Police Chief Ryan Lee advised the board to end it over safety concerns. One member of the board abruptly left the meeting upon hearing from her child that protesters were outside her home.
“I will re-emphasize over and over I want compliance,” Little said. “It is absolutely abhorrent what people are doing ... whether it be a school board, whether it be a health district, whether it be a county or a city, anybody that’s in authority. It’s abhorrent what people are doing.”
Little said hospitals are reaching a dangerous level of capacity, and the state could ration care soon if the spread doesn’t slow.
With the exception of a limit on gatherings larger than 10 people, Little has implemented few current restrictions to stop the spread of the coronavirus. He’s repeatedly said he will not implement a statewide mask mandate, but has always encouraged residents to wear masks, practice social distancing and wash their hands. On Thursday, he asked Idahoans to “choose” to wear masks.
Saint Alphonsus and St. Luke’s Health Systems have previously said they were on the brink of having to use crisis care standards for health care by New Year’s if the trajectory does not change.
Idaho nears crisis standards of care
Little spoke at length about what crisis care standards would mean for residents of Idaho, should we reach that point.
“If your son or daughter gets in a car accident, a hospital bed may not be available for your child, or your child will have received care in a repurposed conference room or your child may have to wait for a procedure to repair their injury until care returns to normal,” he said. “If your wife is diabetic and has had an infection, she may not get a hospital bed. If your husband has a stroke or heart attack, paramedics may not be able to arrive quickly, leaving him to wait longer.”
As of Thursday morning, none of the hospital systems in Idaho were operating under crisis care standards, but many are teetering on the edge. Indeed, 80%of Idaho’s hospitals are not operating normally right now because health care workers are out sick with COVID-19 and too many very sick COVID-19 patients are coming through their doors, according to a Thursday press release from the governor’s office.
Dr. Robert Scoggins, of Kootenai Health, spoke at the press conference on Thursday. He said his hospital has 72 COVID-19 patients, 16 of whom are in the ICU, creating a capacity issue for other patients.
Scoggins said coronavirus is unlike any he’s seen in his career. The virus can cause longterm damage to the heart, lungs, and other organs.
“We’ve seen patients in our ICU from every decade of life, from people in their 20s up into their 90s,” he said. “The majority have been over their 50s ... however some of the sickest patients have been in the 30s and 40s. “
Hospital staff is beginning to feel overwhelmed and his hospital has been forced to purchase additional monitors and ICU beds to care for the influx of COVID-19 patients. They average about 10 admissions a day for COVID-19 patients.
“Every day we struggle with how we’re going to continue doing what we’re doing,” Scoggins said.
On Wednesday, Idaho health districts reported a single-day high of 2,231 new coronavirus cases — 1,840 confirmed and 391 probable. Ada County alone reported more than 1,100 new COVID-19 cases in the past two days. A record 37 deaths were reported Wednesday, with counties across Idaho reporting fatalities connected to the coronavirus.
During Little’s November new conference, he returned Idaho to a modified Stage 2 of his Idaho Rebounds plan. He limited gatherings to no more than 10 people, with exceptions for religious or political events; and he allowed bars and nightclubs to remain open with certain restrictions. He also announced an executive order to mobilize 100 members of the Idaho National Guard to help medical facilities for 30 days.
On Thursday, he extended the mobilization of the National Guard, to continue helping medical facilities.
Since then, Idaho has struggled to keep up with the growth in coronavirus cases. New records for cases, positivity rates and single-day deaths have been set.
Statewide, 1,125 Idahoans have died of COVID-19-related causes since the pandemic reached Idaho.
Shortly before Thursday’s news conference, the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare announced that COVID-19 was the leading cause of death in Idaho for the month of November, according to preliminary data collected by the department. The virus is the third-leading cause of death in Idaho from January through November of 2020.
One nurse’s experience
St. Luke’s ICU nurse Kristin Connelly said in her 24 years as a nurse, she has never seen so much suffering. She knows some people don’t believe that, and tried to share her experience.
“That’s a common feeling, I guess as human beings we do tend to form beliefs and ideas based on how we perceive and look at things and what our experience is,” she said. “And that doesn’t necessarily make your reality the truth, and the truth is, we’re in a pandemic. And it’s a serious, devastating situation, and catastrophic for so many people.”
She’s seen patients in their 20s suffering as well as the elderly struggling with COVID-19. She said there isn’t necessarily a rhyme or reason why some patients recover better than others.
Several weeks ago, she took care of a COVID-19 patient who had a child as young as a year-and-a-half. Connelly shared the woman’s story while fighting back tears.
“We gave her everything at our disposal to help her survive this,” Connelly said. “And she fought. She fought so hard and she fought for every breath that she took. And in the end, we couldn’t save her. And in the end, she couldn’t go home to her family. She couldn’t go home to that baby who will never remember her mom.”
Connelly stressed that the woman’s story matters, just like all of her patients’ lives matter.
“I think of this mom every single day,” she said. “Because I think I feel like I owe that to her to honor her life, because she is not just a number. She is not just a COVID statistic. She is a mom and a wife. She is somebody’s daughter and sister and friend, and every life counts. It matters.”
Connelly shared the story not to induce fear and not to upset anyone, but remind people to care for each other.
“We are a people that care about our neighbors we care about each other,” she said.
Controversy in Idaho
In addition to Idaho’s coronavirus cases and deaths growing over the past month, an increasing number of incidents have led to local politicization of the pandemic.
On Nov. 17, the Southwest District Health board allowed two anti-mask conspiracy theorists to address the board and present false information on COVID-19, vaccines and masks as if it were fact. One such speaker told the board that Idaho is “a victim of a very sophisticated psy-ops, psychological warfare.”
In late November, a Bonner County commissioner threatened to defund the Panhandle Health District after the district enacted a mask mandate to curb the spread of the virus, though that effort was later abandoned.
On Tuesday, hundreds of protesters gathered outside the Central District Health office while district board members attempted to discuss a public health order. Because the meeting was ended at the direction of Boise police for safety, the board never voted on the order, which could have mandated masks in Boise and Elmore counties in addition to existing mandates in Ada and Valley counties.
The following day, Lee announced three arrest warrants in connection with protests that took place outside of board members’ homes, including that of Ada County Commissioner Diana Lachiondo. The commissioner abruptly left the virtual meeting after she received a call from one of her children, who told his mother there were protesters causing a disturbance outside their home.
Lachiondo, a Democrat, later responded in a Facebook post, calling on Little to “act boldly and with conviction,” and do what’s necessary to limit the coronavirus spread. She also called on other Republican leaders who have “politicized public health, who have amplified rhetoric, capitalized on it, tacitly endorsed it while holding hands with the most extreme factions in their party: take a hard look at what you’ve become. It’s far past time to do better.”
This story was originally published December 10, 2020 at 12:22 PM.
